As a realtor specializing in sustainability, I’m often asked, “What's different about specializing in sustainability?”
I help buyers and sellers, and the general public with real estate like every other real estate agent. But due to my intensive training, I may look at your home a lot differently and offer different opinions than just comparing the finishes and how a home looks from the curb.
So what’s different about being a NAR GREEN designee?
The field of study includes energy efficiency, indoor air quality (radon, lead, and mold to name a few), water efficiency, operational methods, community information and sustainability and much more!
Sustainability is defined as 3 legged stool. People, Planet & Profit!
- People are our first priority as whatever is changed or enhanced must benefit people.
- We are concerned about the planet and it’s viability and that we need to protect our planet.
- Any aspect of sustainability must be profitable to be sustainable. An avenue won’t be sustainable if it doesn’t protect the people and the planet.
If you think about all aspects that benefit people, that includes wellness, too. Tightening up a building envelope can help you achieve wellness, but you must have good indoor quality at the same time, something that is oftentimes forgotten in older home retrofits.
When a homeowner lowers their energy bill, they are also lowering their carbon footprint. A carbon footprint is the emittance of greenhouse gases from a home. Lowering an energy bill, lowers those gases thereby benefiting the planet.
Merriam Webster defines Carbon Footprint:
"the amount of greenhouse gases and specifically carbon dioxide emitted by something (such as a person's activities or a product's manufacture and transport) during a given period."
And of course saving money on energy bills is profitable, whether you retrofit an existing home or live in a new homes they typically use less energy than older homes thanks to newer building codes.
Can you think of something in your every day life that you do be sustainable?
This is Part II in a series of posts about sustainability!
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